Ode to Shorebirds

This time of year, in many parts of the country, birders are out watching shorebirds. Identifying shorebirds can be more than a bit challenging. Some birders love it. Some...not so much! ;-) On the Birding Ohio Facebook group recently there's been a lot of discussion of shorebird identification, and my friend Susan Williams threw down a challenge. If we all loved shorebirds so much, why didn't we just write a poem about them? Several of us took her up on her challenge. I thought you might enjoy reading a few of these Odes to Shorebirds.

Shorebirds are travelers

From fields far flung

With lovely names like "plover" 

that roll right off the tongue

~kimberly kaufman

I seen this little bird, 

it wasn't out too deep, 

I double checked my field guide, 

and thought it was a peep. 

~jeff loughman

If a Dunlin doesn't know 

whether a Willet will not show 

how a Turnstone tosses stones 

while leaving Solitaries alone 

to watch the Plovers on the shore 

whose antics make the Stilts snore 

then the Knots do not care 

to follow the Curlews through the air 

and the Avocets are averse 

to hearing birders curse 

waking Godwits from their sleep 

with a cry of "It's a peep!" 

~katie Andersen 

I thought I heard a shorebird, 

Calling overhead. 

My mind said, "Sure, bird" 

And I fell back into bed.” 

~kathi hutton